Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson reveals he nearly died battling pneumonia

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that his pneumonia was so severe doctors that told him he could have died.

The Grand Tour presenter fell ill earlier this month while on the Spanish island of Majorca and has opened up about his time in hospital in his Sunday Times column.

He wrote that he had spent "three nights spent spasming in my bed" before a doctor sent him for tests at the hospital, the Daily Mail reports. 

He was then told he would have to be admitted "for at least a week", which he called "impossible". 

The doctor added: "If you don't do as I say you will die", writes Clarkson.

The TV presenter described his boredom in the hospital as "so bad I thought often about killing myself".

He writes: "I'm sure many of you will have found yourself in hospital, not having planned to be there.

"But for m, it was a new experience. And a weird one.

"Because I was in a room with nothing on the walls except wallpaper, and most of that was coming off."

Clarkson has now left the hospital, but faces two months of recuperation.

He added: "This is the problem with hospitals. People who stay in them become institutionalised and incapable of speaking about anything other than what nurse brought what drug at what time.

"Boredom turns them into bores. 

"And when they get out, as I have, and there is nothing to do for two whole months apart from get better, things are even worse, because all I can talk about is my illness."

Clarkson announced news of his illness last week, posting on Drive Tribe he would be "out of action for quite some time".

"It's really really annoying because I've never had one day off work since I started in 1978," he added.

The illness comes two months after his co-host Richard Hammond was airlifted to hospital when his car crashed while filming The Grand Tour.

This article was first published on Daily Mail and is republished here with permission.